The invention relates to fault isolation in interconnect systems, for example to cable-based interconnects in communications system such as a switch fabric.
A cable-based interconnect system for a complex communications system can involve a large number of cables interconnecting system components. When problems with connectivity and communication across a cable-based interconnect link is identified, it is desirable to be able to limit the problem to either end-point (connector or interface logic) or to the cable itself (or potentially to a specific connector on the cable).
One approach to addressing this could be to move cables around. However, in general, even moving cables around may not provide a solution to fault isolation. Moreover, moving cables imposes other problems in terms of potentially having to obstruct other on-going data-traffic (i.e. when no idle and operational interconnect interface connector is available). Another difficulty is that damaged connector pins can cause the problem to propagate from the chassis connector to the cable connector (or vice versa), whereby moving cables around imposes a risk for “contaminating” healthy chassis connectors due to the cable connector being bad. In such cases, the diagnostics process could lead to more damage within the system as well as significant confusion until the contamination and/or inherent problem has been determined. Ideally, it is desirable to be able to isolate the problem as much as possible before any manual intervention is required.
An aim of the present invention is to at least mitigate at least some of the concerns identified above.